They will form a new company for the venture, which will be headquartered in Boston, a hub for biotechnology and medical research. It will be “free from profit-making incentives and constraints.”

Gawande will start July 9. He currently practices general and endocrine surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and is a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School.

He is founding executive director of Ariadne Labs, a health systems innovation center. He’s also written numerous books, including “Being Mortal” and “The Checklist Manifesto.”